Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1912 — AN AID FOR TOURISTS [ARTICLE]

AN AID FOR TOURISTS

Completion of Swiss Road Will Be Boon to Sightseers. Is Finished to the Joch—Bome of the Innovations That Will Follow Accomplishment of Work Begun In 1897. Berne, Switzerland.—After nearly 15 years’ work (the first section of the Jungfrau railway was begun as long ago as 1897) the tunnel has just been pierced to Jungfraujoch, at an altitude of 11,348 feet, or 2,311 feet below the summit. Since 1905 trains have been running as far as Eismeer station, which is 10,345 feet above the sea. The railway, it will be remembered, goes absolutely through-the lower part of the Eiger. The total length of tunnel is nearly ten kilometers, or about six and a quarter miles. When trains run to the station which 1b to be constructed at Jungfraujoch, it will be possible by descending to Jungfraufim, to reach the summit of the Jungfrau in from three to four hours from the station. It is proposed, however, to exploit still further what is, after all, an exceedingly beautiful mountain, and construct a lift or aerial railway, from the highest station to the summit of the mountain, so that the feeblest persons, provided their hearts are not seriously affected, will be able to ascend to a height of 13,669 feet. Curiously enough, the completion of the desecration, of the Jungfrau occurs just a little more than a century after the first ascent of the Jungfrau, which was accomplished in 1811, while in the next forty years only four other ascents were recorded As if lt were not enough to have tunneled the Eiger and to be going to build a hotel on the snows of the Jungfrau, some speculators are actually contemplating the construction of what is called a “Schlittelbahn” —a kind of sleigh railway, to convey tourists from Jungfraujoch station over Jungfrauflrn and the Aletsch glacier, past the Majelensee to the Eggishoro, whence it will be possible to proceed by cogwheel railway to the Rhone valley. It will probably be a long time, however, before this part of the plan is really carried out. The Jungfrau railway will certainly foment the desire of the Zermatt peo-

pie to see the completion of the Matterhorn railway, the protests against which a few years ago were so loud that the proejjct for its constnictlon had to be abandoned. They will argue, no doubt, that the Bernese Oberland will now be able to offer an attraction to tourists which they cannot offer, quite forgetting the number of people who are repelled and disgusted by the “berailment" of mountains. The Jungfrau railway, even as far as it runs at present, is .187 feet higher than the Oornergrat railway (10,346 feet), but when it is carried to Jungfraujoch and the summit station It will be much the highest railway in Europe, although not, as the Swlsa say, the highest railway in the world, there being at least two Andean lines which are some 4,000 feet higher.